North Korea may launch ICBM in November, launcher ready, South Korea says

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and his daughter watch the test launch of a Hwasongpho-18 intercontinental ballistic missile at an undisclosed location in North Korea in this undated picture released on Dec. 19, 2023. (KCNA via KNS/AFP file photo)
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Updated 30 October 2024
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North Korea may launch ICBM in November, launcher ready, South Korea says

  • South Korean MP Lee Seong-kweun said a mobile launcher has been deployed at a location for a possible test of the ICBM
  • Lee was briefed reporters after a closed-door parliamentary hearing with Defense Intelligence Agency officials

SEOUL: North Korea has moved a launcher in place after completing preparations to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile and may go ahead with the launch in November, South Korean members of parliament said on Wednesday citing the country’s military intelligence.
South Korean MP Lee Seong-kweun said a mobile launcher has been deployed at a location for a possible test of the ICBM and its atmospheric re-entry of a missile warhead, potentially around the time of the US presidential election Nov. 5.
Lee was briefing reporters after a closed-door parliamentary hearing with Defense Intelligence Agency officials.
Another MP Park Sun-won said the DIA did not believe a missile was yet loaded on the launcher.
South Korean officials have said the North may attempt to launch a long-range missile or conduct its seventh nuclear test around the November US election to highlight its strategic weapons development.


Moscow records heaviest snowfall in over 200 years

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Moscow records heaviest snowfall in over 200 years

  • Commuter trains in the Moscow area were delayed and cars were stuck in long traffic jams on Thursday evening
  • Snow piles on the ground reached as high as 60 centimeters in some parts of the capital

MOSCOW: Russia’s capital Moscow has this month seen the largest snowfall in more than 200 years, Moscow State University meteorologists said on Thursday.
AFP images from the city of around 13 million people showed residents struggling to make their way through heavy piles of snow on the streets in its central district.
Commuter trains in the Moscow area were delayed, AFP reporters witnessed, and cars were stuck in long traffic jams on Thursday evening.
“January was a cold and unusually snowy month in Moscow,” the university said on social media.
“By January 29, the Moscow State University Meteorological Observatory had recorded almost 92 mm of precipitation, which is already the highest value in the last 203 years,” it added.
Snow piles on the ground reached as high as 60 centimeters (24 inches) in some parts of the capital on Thursday.
Snow is mostly air, meaning the level of settled snow far surpasses scientific measurements of precipitation — which measures the amount of water that has fallen.
The record snowfall was “caused by deep and extensive cyclones with sharp atmospheric fronts passing over the Moscow region,” the observatory said.
“There was much more (snow) when I was a kid, but now we practically don’t have any snow at all, there used to be much more,” Pavel, a 35-year-old bartender and Moscow resident, told AFP, grumbling about a feeling of “emptiness” in the dark, snowy winter.
Earlier this month, Russia’s far east Kamchatka region declared an emergency situation due to a massive snowstorm that left its major city partially paralyzed.
Images, widely circulated online, showed huge snow piles reaching up to the second story of buildings and people digging their way through roads as snow blanketed cars on either side.